Lunch and dinner are predictably pleasing at Silvana Salcido Esparza’s new uptown diner, but the real novelty is a delectable desayuno.
If you take pleasure in following the goings-on of local celebrity chefs, you’ve come across Silvana Salcido Esparza a lot, probably more than any other. So it seems only natural she’s making headlines again, this time with Barrio Urbano, a small, pleasant place that opened in January at The Yard, Sam Fox’s bustling restaurant compound in north-central Phoenix.
Four-time James Beard Award nominee Esparza first made news in 2002 with Barrio Café, the revolutionary restaurant where she alchemized traditional Mexican food into modern gourmet cuisine. (The afterglow never really wore off; her pomegranate-studded guacamole and tender, citrus-kissed cochinita pibil are as lauded today as they were then.) In 2011, she dived into the Scottsdale restaurant scene, opening Barrio Queen, an upscale taquería at SouthBridge, before selling her stake three years later. Twice she has announced plans to bring her signature cooking style to Gilbert, to no avail. But she did open a satellite of Barrio Café in Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, followed by a second restaurant in Terminal 2: Barrio Avión, a Chipotle-style eatery modeled after Tinta Mexicana, a concept she designed for the Arizona Mills shopping center in Tempe.
Her latest creation: Barrio Urbano, a leaner, sleeker version of Barrio Café, where Esparza’s polished versions of great Mexican dishes – with ample amounts of tequila to wash them down – compete for the attention of The Yard’s scene of hungry and thirsty hanger-outers.
Adjacent to Fox’s Little Cleo’s Seafood Legend and catty-corner from gastropub anchor Culinary Dropout, Barrio Urbano – located in a space formerly occupied by the tapas and wine bar Lola – boasts a bright and airy dining area with vivid street-art style murals, an open kitchen and a comfortable patio where Ping-Pong and cornhole battles held under The Yard’s enormous covered courtyard can be observed between sips of citrus-laced margaritas.
Whether Esparza intended it or not, Barrio Urbano seems to have been instantly adopted as the place for breakfast by uptown locals, especially those who prefer their eggs with sides of spicy longaniza sausage from Schreiner’s and house-made salsas that don’t hold back on the heat. When you’re willing to valet your car for chilaquiles slathered in a satisfyingly stinging roasted tomatillo salsa, you know you’ve found a place that understands Mexican breakfast.
The papas con chorizo are fantastic, wedges of crisp roasted potatoes sautéed with onions, garlic, chunks of crunchy green and red peppers and Mexican sausage. Take them up a notch by adding a fried egg and, if you’re drinking, a chile-spiked michelada served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass. (Tip: For dark beer lovers, have the michelada made with Modelo). There are excellent huevos divorciados, too, with each of the two fried eggs resting atop either a fiery salsa verde or a smoky-hot chile de árbol salsa. If you’re fortunate enough to snag an order of torrejas before the kitchen runs out, you’ll be treated to pitch-perfect French toast with a Latin twist: three slabs of bolillo toast served with piloncillo (the raw sugar of Mexico) syrup and curly slices of jalapeño-cured bacon. And even if it doesn’t happen to be Sunday, you can get menudo, best livened up with hot sauce and salt. But what you’ll really end up craving is the fruta estilo Tijuana, a sophisticated version of fruit and cottage cheese built up with house-made granola, sunflower seeds, pecans, golden raisins, fresh-cut fruits like mango, pineapple and blueberries, and a drizzling of honey from Tempe’s Crockett Honey Co. After a few crunchy bites, you become aware of the dish’s near-perfect sweetness level complemented by a subtle tang from the cottage cheese.
That said, the preeminence of Barrio Urbano as a breakfast spot isn’t quite mirrored by lunch and dinner, but there are mostly good dishes if you know where to look.
Esparza’s guacamole is still spectacular, of course, even if requesting that it not be constructed tableside (is this trend over yet?) earns you a side-eye from your otherwise congenial server. Less spirited is the grilled corn street snack esquites asados and the boca negra, a dish of under-seasoned refried black beans served with salsa, corn chips, and the odd addition of fried shrimp. But there is homey posole verde as well as glorious toritos, golden guerito chiles stuffed with sautéed shrimp and oozy goat and Oaxaca cheeses in an umami-rich sauce made with lemons and Maggi seasoning.
Skip the baby spinach-intensive salads. Better is Esparza’s peppery and perfectly charred asada found in vehicles like the mula, a kind of bulked-out quesadilla, and an epicurean-minded torta put together with melted cheeses, spicy bacon, avocado and sautéed onions on a pillowy toasted bolillo roll delivered alongside the same chile-coated fries served at Barrio Cafe.
There are asada tacos as well, trios of street-size snacks layered with things like chorizo, blue cheese and thick slices of avocado. You’ll also like fish tacos delicately fried in a beer batter of Modelo Especial, and superb spicy-sweet al pastor with bits of grilled pineapple. Between taco bites, there is a spicy pickled slaw you wouldn’t mind having alongside just about anything.
The most expensive thing on the menu, Esparza’s unconventional version of the relleno, the roasted and stuffed poblano pepper, may also be the least successful – blasted by a tangy and intense blue cheese and with a single underwhelming square of puffy dough in place of the pepper’s typical breading. If you’re into cactus, there is puerco con nopal, a mountain of seared pork loin atop a slab of grilled cactus and coated in a rich green tomatillo and cactus salsa. And it’s easy to become obsessed with the enchiladas here, rolled corn tortillas filled with the ideal amount of cheese and a choice of sautéed spinach or grilled chicken topped with longaniza sausage and squirts of a dreamy tomatillo jojoque (cultured cream).
If you are especially lucky, Esparza’s cochinita pibil shows up on the specials board. For her fans, it’s a reminder of why the chef who brought modern Mexican cuisine to Phoenix is still relevant today. For everyone else, it’s a delicious introduction.
DETAIL
Barrio Urbano
Cuisine: Mexican
Contact: 5632 N. Seventh St., Phoenix, 602-287-9000, barriourbanophx.com
Hours: Breakfast and lunch 7 a.m.-3 p.m. daily; dinner 3-11p.m. F-Sa, 3-9 p.m. M-Th and Su; happy hour 2-6 p.m. M-F
Highlights: Chilaquiles ($9); torrejas ($8); fruta estilo Tijuana ($7); enchiladas suizas con longaniza ($21); torta de asada ($12); toritos (2/$9)
